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Nigeria’s debt profile rises to $57.4bn, may hit $80bn soon

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Nigeria’s debt profile rises to $57.4bn, may hit $80bn soon

The Director-General of the Debt Management Office, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, has disclosed that Nigeria’s external and internal debt profile as at December 31, 2016, was $57.4bn.

He made this known when defending the agency’s 2017 budget before the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts in Abuja on Thursday.

Nwankwo said the amount included domestic and foreign debts owed by the country as at the end of 2016.

Giving a breakdown of the debt profile, he said the external debt profile stood at $11.41bn (N3.48tn), while the domestic debt stock stood at $45.98 billion dollars (N13.88tn).

According to him, the debt stock of N17. 36tn owed by the country included debts of the Federal Government, the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

The DG also said that the difference was due to the projected debt service payments in respect of new financing that was not fully utilised, as only a few loans became effective during the period.

Nwankwo pointed out that the domestic debt stock of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the 36 states, and the FCT accounted for about 80 per cent of the total debt, while their external debt stock accounted for about 20 per cent.

He assured that though Nigeria’s debt profile was on the increase, it was not in a precarious economic situation that would warrant seeking for debt relief.

According to him, in spite of the recession, the economic indices had not portrayed Nigeria as a weak economy to warrant seeking for debt relief.

Hear him:“Nigeria is not in a position to beg for debt forgiveness.

“In spite of the present state of the economy, the country is still counted as a strong economy among other countries. The economic indicators show that Nigeria has a strong economy.”

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He said if borrowing would be genuinely committed to infrastructural development, it would go a long way in the move to develop the economy.

On repayment of the debt, he said the Ministry of Finance was making effort to expand the nation’s tax base.

According to him, this will be done by ensuring that people and companies that are not paying taxes begin to pay to boost the revenue base and reduce the need for borrowing.

He lamented that tax collection in Nigeria had been poor, contributing to reduced revenue generation.

But economists said the news was not cheering as there is every indication that Nigeria may likely hit above $80bn debt by the time the various loan applications before various institutions sail through in 2017.

“There is no doubt that with this reality, Nigeria will be making the history of a well-endowed country that has gradually become the largest debtor-country in Africa, if not in the entire developing economies,” said Christoper Ndu, a financial analyst with Citi Group.

He said the problem of borrowing is when the funds are not deployed on projects that could yield the needed revenue with which to service the loans.

Another commentator and a lawyer, Mrs. Bisi Ayeni-Akiolu warned of the danger of selling the sovereignty of Nigerian state to the creditor countries, adding that, “this country could do without most of the loans, especially the ones which tend to remove people’s welfare from government policies.”

 

 

 

 

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0 Comments

  1. seyi jelili

    February 17, 2017 at 8:08 am

    Everyday our debt profile inflates as we incur more debts and to service them becomes problematic. What a nation is this? And the disheartening thing is that, the money we do borrow are spent on frivolities.

    • Balarabe musa

      February 17, 2017 at 9:04 am

      That was during Jonathan’s regime we spend money on frivolities not in baba buhari’s regime. Money borrowed are spent on the projects meant for.

  2. Margret Dickson

    February 17, 2017 at 11:01 am

    Dr. Abraham Nwankwo has not been carrying out his duties as the Director-General of Debt Management, how did Nigeria’s debt accumulated to $57.4bn? What has he been managing all these while? this is over 57 billion dollars we’re talking about.

  3. Animashaun Ayodeji

    February 17, 2017 at 11:06 am

    It is a horrible thing to say that Nigeria is not in a position to beg for debt forgiveness, why are we in debt in the first place? I know for an economy to strive out of recession, there must be some debts, but not like $57.4bn! This is too much, how is Nigeria going to get out of recession when the debt alone can crash the country’s economy

    • Roland Uchendu Pele

      February 17, 2017 at 11:29 am

      Unless you are an Economist, I won’t listen to anything you say concerning debts crashing a country’s economy. Ask the USA how they are surviving.

    • Joy Madu

      February 17, 2017 at 11:24 pm

      I pray they comes out of this debt because our so called president is not functioning in Nigeria again but in London and his the cause of this problem

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